Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Math Pro

“Math Pro” will take you through high-school math and beyond. It is a powerful tool that is overflowing with the tutorials, examples, and solvers from the following applications: Algebra Pro, Geometry Pro, Probability Pro, Statistics Pro, Pre-calculus Pro, and Calculus Pro.

Available on:

iOS

PureBlock

Are you sick and tired of popup ads, unwanted page redirects and many more annoying advertisements on the internet? PureBlock is the perfect solution for you.

Available on:

iOS

Aura

These powerful and beautifully designed tools will help you add beautiful frames, filters, text, and so much more to your photos, in the most creative and playful way.

Available on:

iOS

Coyn

Coyn is all about efficiency. Simply swipe up to add expenses and swipe down to add income, and manage your expenses seamlessly.

Available on:

iOS

Who Was?

How well do you know historical figures and pop icons? Download today and put your knowledge to the test.

Available on:

iOS

Extreme Reminders

Extreme Reminders is the only reminder list you will need for your iOS Device. It contains powerful features and the added benefit of being able to upgrade to a full organizer with Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Lists at any time.

Available on:

iOS

Google needs to start selling the Daydream Controller by itself

It’s time to sell the Daydream Controller without its plushy headset.

If you want the Daydream experience, at least right now, you need to buy a Daydream View headset. With Daydream support coming to the Galaxy S8 this summer, that’s not going to be an ideal solution for some. Many Galaxy S8 owners already have a great VR headset that could easily be used for Daydream, and it came free with the phone. The only thing that headset is missing in order to complete the Daydream experience is Google’s motion controller.

The only way to get that controller right now is to buy a complete VR kit from Google, and with the volume of Gear VR headsets out in the world right now that needs to change.

There’s something of an unspoken secret with Google Daydream — the headset is actually just a plushie version of Google Cardboard. There’s no additional hardware in the headset, all of the Daydream magic is done in software thanks to Google’s rigid hardware requirements. The only piece of hardware that is actually mandatory for Daydream to function is the Bluetooth wand you get with Daydream View, the Daydream Controller. Google has made this controller a standard, and said any company can make Daydream headsets if this controller is included.

But with the Galaxy S8 adding support soon, the script needs to be flipped a little. While Google gets lots of points for making Daydream View ultra comfortable and crush-proof, Samsung’s Gear VR headset is a more immersive experience and it’s actually built for the Galaxy S8. It’s going to be a lot easier to convert Galaxy S8 owners to Daydream if it’s possible for those who already own a Gear VR to just add a Daydream Controller. If you offer a more compelling user experience with deeper integration with Google services, which Daydream absolutely does, this will be a win-win for a lot of would-be VR fans. It’s already possible to use the Gear VR to run Cardboard apps, so this really isn’t a leap.

This extends well beyond the existing Gear VR owners. Google Cardboard headsets are everywhere, in every kind of configuration and made out of every kind of material. Offering those people, even the ones with simple pieces of cardboard, a way to upgrade the experience with the right phone is a great way to continue growth.

Daydream View is still the best overall way to enjoy Daydream, and will likely continue to be the most common way users jump into this platform, but it shouldn’t be the only way. There are great alternatives, and Google’s support would go a long way towards fringe user adoption.

So come on, Google. Do the thing.

Amazon Fire 7 vs Fire HD 8: Which should you buy?

In the battle of Amazon’s all new tablets, which is the right one for you?

Amazon’s latest revisions to its 7 and 8-inch Fire tablets will go on sale in early June 2017. They will completely replace the older models, and while both are modest upgrades, they’re upgrades nonetheless.

And better still, while the hardware gets a little bit better, the price stays the same. So, once again Amazon has two affordable tablets that are actually worth buying. But which should you go for?

See at Amazon

Spec comparison

Here’s what makes up the two newest Fire tablets:

Which should you get?

The two Fire tablets are very much alike, but the Fire HD 8 has some important upgrades for that extra $30 asking price. For starters, there’s a higher resolution display, and though not a massive increase in PPI, it looks noticeably better than the 7-inch model. There’s also more RAM and more internal storage, along with a fairly significant boost in battery life over the smaller one.

For media lovers, the Fire HD 8 is also going to deliver better audio, with stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos support for an all-round better experience watching video content or listening to music.

Here’s the thing, though. The Fire 7 is a better choice for a tablet to give to your young ones. At 50 bucks it’s verging on impulse buy territory, and the new model has a better screen and dual-band WiFi support to boast over its predecessor. For someone looking for the cheapest tablet possible that isn’t garbage, the Fire 7 is still the one we recommend.

Both of these come in child-friendly Kids Editions, but if you’re looking for a decent, low-cost tablet to consume media, browse the web, check your email and even play some games on, the Fire HD 8 is the one to get. The $30 difference is small enough that the improvements you get are well worth the extra investment.

Both are still excellent low-cost tablets, though.

See at Amazon

Jaguar XE S: New supercharged V6 is pure S EX

One of the things that Jaguar does rather well, is lighting a fire under its cars. While there’s no of shortage of big diesel Jags eating up the miles on Blighty’s roads – as there are Audis, Mercs and Beemers – it’s always more fun with a supercharged V6 petrol under the bonnet.

Say hello then to the new Jaguar XE S, riding the same engine as the F-Type, offering sporty drivers a thrilling 380PS from its V6 petrol engine, and putting a little more purpose into your morning commute.

This is Jaguar’s answer to something like the Audi S5 Sportback, fusing luxury with power in a wonderfully apologetic way.

Pocket-lint

Jaguar XE S: Sporting lines redefined

Okay, so we’ll admit that this isn’t an entirely new car, as it’s the same design in and out as the 2015 Jaguar XE, the most compact of Jaguar’s saloons. This is really a car that’s designed around the driver, as the rear passengers will probably be complaining about the lack of leg room if they are over the age of 8.

That doesn’t matter though, because the biggest motivator for buying a Jaguar XE S is that you’ll be in the driving seat. As we’ve said before, there’s a lot we like about the interior design, especially the way the doors meet the dash. It’s more distinctive than the larger Jaguar XF, but there’s no escaping that there’s less space overall.

For the exterior then, the XE S gets itself a full sporty makeover, not unlike the R-Sport trim, but set off nicely here with the £650 Firenze Red paint job. The de rigueur red brake calipers peek through the 19-inch split spoke wheels, while the black sills and rear valance indicate this is something a little different, while carrying the twin tailpipes with distinction and poise.

Pocket-lint

We still think this is a great looking car, but it doesn’t quite have the same road presence as BMW’s M Sport 4-series Gran Coupe, which will likely turn heads a little sharper than the XE S. But there is some charm in that. While the sporty accolades may go to BMW, the Jaguar has subtlety that BMW swaps for brutality. It’s less boy, and more gentleman, racer.

Jaguar has some of those options though. If you want carbonfibre door mirrors or side vents, you can spec these options separately, but that will send the price soaring.

Our test drive model includes twin colours of interior leather, bringing a lift to the door linings and sports seats which we rather like, although this will be an acquired taste. It’s also included, so won’t cost you more, even if some basics, like powered folding door mirrors (£295) you’d expect to find included on a car that costs nearly £50k, aren’t.

Pocket-lint

Jaguar XE S: Driving is all about dynamics

Thumb the start button and the V6 springs to life, cocking your mouth into half a smile. Your neighbours might resent that early-morning roaring of the V6, but that’s half the fun of owning a car like this. You could have a Ford Mustang GT after all, so your neighbours should be grateful that you took the luxury option, as it’s not the noisiest car around.

In many ways, this engine is actually remarkably well behaved. It’s fun to burble through the towns without being too crass, but put your foot down and you’ll see the needles quickly head toward the red as the noise rises. But that’s the experienced of a slightly tamed cat.

To really experience what this car is about you’ll need to depress the dial slightly and switch to sport mode. That’s not the only step, because even that doesn’t really let it out of the bag: you’ll also have to switch to dynamic.

Pocket-lint

The dynamics are customisable on this model (an option on lower spec cars), allowing you to decide how you want the engine, gearbox, steering and suspension to behave. It’s here that you can move the Jag on from a slightly sedate throttle response into something that’s very twitchy and taut: once in dynamic mode, it will buck as soon as you touch the accelerator, a perfect recipe for spinning your rear wheels, while you jolt back into the loving caress of the leather sports seats.

So in this mode it’s not great for the sort of stop start driving that you get around town (there’s even auto start-stop to save you fuel in those conditions), but it does mean that once you’re under way, it feels much more like you’re driving a sports car. Jaguar isn’t alone in this, of course, but there’s something special about feeling the XE S come alive the way it does, something feels inherently right as you take this luxe machine and throw it around with dignified abandon.

This more powerful version of the 3-litre petrol engine gives you 380PS, routing through the sharp 8-speed automatic gearbox, taking you from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, which is pretty fast by any measure. It’s almost as fast as that big Ford we mentioned, with a 34mpg figure given for a combined cycle and emissions of 194g/km.

Pocket-lint

The soundtrack is sporty too, but you don’t quite get the full range of popping and echoing growls that you’ll find on slightly more powerful engines from the sports saloons in a tier above the XE S, but it does some completely authentic and fitting. At the same time, this is still a Jaguar that drives perfectly comfortably, cornering nicely, with great feel to the steering and enough flexibility in the sports suspension to keep you flat in the corners, but not breaking your spine on the rougher routes.

It’s driving pleasure, well managed and flexible, a wonderful combination of comfort meeting sporty thrills and few spills.

Jaguar XE S: Internal tech

One of the fun features of the latest generations of Jaguars is the InControl Touch system. This gives you an 8-inch central display, flanked by controls, but fully touch-enabled. It’s paired with a standard driver’s display, but you do get an upgraded Meridian sound system delivering 380W of excellent sound.

For £1090 you upgrade this to InControl Touch Pro, which swaps the central display for a larger 10-inch screen that loses the buttons for a cleaner look. Meanwhile those analogue dials are exchanged for a fully-digital driver’s display. This is all a little more futuristic, and can integrate features like navigation maps along with offering a range of customisations. Best of all, when you’re in dynamic mode, the display dials turn red, sticking the rev counter in the centre.

Pocket-lint

This upgrade keeps the 380W system and also gives you 10GB internal storage where you could keep your favourite tunes, while your connected smartphone will let you make calls, play music, as well as powering Jaguar apps.

There’s no Android Auto of Apple CarPlay, however, which it a slight negative, but there’s no shortage of space-age fun to be had in the XE S’s interior.

First Impressions

There are plenty of rivals in the luxury sports saloon space and in many ways, the rivals are getting rather common. Sure, there’s the cheaper (both in price and in quality) Ford Mustang that’s rather more rare on the streets, but there’s no shortage of Audi S, BMW M Sport or Mercedes AMG on the roads.

So if you want something that’s a little more unique, but still packed full of quality and excitement, then look to this high spirited Jaguar.

Listening to starlight: Our ongoing search for alien intelligence

Six hours a day, seven days a week, for four straight months. That’s how long radio astronomer Frank D. Drake pointed the 26-meter telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) research facility in Green Bank, West Virginia, towards the heavens, looking for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. He dubbed his efforts Project Ozma, in honor of the Queen of Oz from L. Frank Baum’s famed children’s book series.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory – Image: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

Between April and July of 1960, Drake recorded some 150 hours of tape speckled with radio noise. While no meaningful encoded signals or patterns emerged from those readings, Drake still earned himself a place in history for performing what would become the first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the modern era.

Since then, research organizations around the world have performed nearly 100 SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) experiments. Even NASA got in on the hunt, working with the SETI Institute between 1988 and 1993, when Sen. Richard Bryan (D – Nevada) introduced an amendment that cut the program’s government funding.

“Senators kind of looked at this line item and said, ‘Hey wait a minute. Are we are we paying to search for little green men?’” explained Steve Croft, an assistant project astronomer at the UC Berkeley SETI Research Center and researcher with the Breakthrough Discovery project. “That’s kind of a laugh factor which has always come along with it.”

But as the next generation of telescopes come online, like the upcoming Webb Space Telescope or dedicated planet hunter the Kepler Telescope, the scientific community is beginning to warm to the idea of SETI as not just a valid scientific discipline but an essential one. “I think people are kind of coming around to the idea that SETI as a scientific endeavor is one that’s worth pursuing,” Croft added. Especially, “when we can answer a scientific question or attempt to answer the scientific question are we alone in the universe?”

The SETI Institute of California is trying to do just that. The 33-year-old organization formed in 1984 with the mission of understanding the origins and nature of life in the universe. It employs 120 staffers, 75 of whom are PhD-level researchers, and conducts research among 22 fields of inquiry over seven branches of research: astronomy and astrophysics, geoscience, exoplanets and exploration, exobiology and SETI.

The SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array – Image: Reuters

For its SETI efforts, the Institute relies on radio and optical telescopes. On the radio side, the Institute leverages its Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a 42-dish setup located at Hat Creek Radio Observatory, nearly 300 miles Northeast of San Francisco. It can scan 4 octaves of radio frequency and generates roughly 55 TB of data every day. Unlike conventional radio telescopes used for radio astronomy, the ATA scans a broader swath of the radio spectrum, albeit at a lower sensitivity.

The group is also working with Paul Horowitz, a physicist and electrical engineer at Harvard, to develop “all sky all the time optical SETI survey systems” where the ATA would perform wide surveys of the sky while other, more sensitive telescopes — like the Lick — would follow up with more focused surveys covering a smaller portion of sky.

For its optical surveys, the Institute splits its time between the UC Berkeley’s Lick Observatory and the Harvard Haystack telescope. These telescopes are looking for laser emissions, specifically. These could be from any number of alien sources including communication arrays, weapon tests or transportation (hello, laser sails). “But in any case a monochromatic high-intensity highly focused coherent beam of light would be a fairly indicative sign of technology that could potentially be seen from very far away,” Bill Diamond, CEO of the SETI Institute explained.

However, both the radio and optical instruments have noticeable limitations. While humankind is theoretically capable of blasting a laser beam into space that is 10,000 times stronger than the sun, Diamond continued, “there isn’t an instrument on Earth that can detect an Earth-like planet with Earth-like leakage of electromagnetic radiation.” This leakage refers to the general emission of radio signals a civilization gives off through its various technologies, rather than powerful, highly focused signals intentionally designed to get another planet’s attention. And while using overlapping technologies, as in the case of the SETI Institute-Horowitz collaboration, can boost our relative capabilities, it’s still not good enough to intercept complex communications that rely on, say, wideband carrier signals.

“We don’t want to make too many assumptions about the kind of signals that an extraterrestrial civilization might be sending,” Croft said. “It might not be kind of a simple tone. You know a transmission which is a single frequency will have a drifting tone because it is on a planet that’s going around a star.” [Thanks, Doppler effect – ed] Who knows, maybe Frank Drake did find an alien message in that radio static but it’s encoded in a manner that researchers haven’t yet been able to identify and decipher. “They might be sending some kind of complicated data; we make all sorts of complicated transmissions ourselves as humans,” Croft concluded.

This technological wall has spurned SETI researchers to seek out more effective means of scouring the galaxy. In the case of Berkeley’s Breakthrough Listen project, that involved securing a 10-year, $100 million funding grant from Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur, and physicist Stephen Hawking. This money will be used to buy time on two of the world’s most powerful telescopes (the Green Bank in West Virginia and the Parkes in Australia).

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope – Image: John B. Carnett via Getty Images

“We are in a position with the telescopes that we would be able to detect transmissions at a level that is similar to what we ourselves as humans generate,” Croft said. “As of right now we’re kind of relying on the fact that if civilizations are out there that they’re broadcasting to higher power than we are. But we’re not very far off being able to detect human-like emissions.” Hopefully, as the Square Kilometer Array comes online in Australia and South Africa, that will actually happen.

Over the past 18 months, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative has also teamed with the SETI@Home project, run by a team from UC Berkeley, to process a portion of the data generated each day. SETI@Home launched in 1999 as a means of distributing the computational workload that analyzing dozens of terabytes of radio signal data generated by the Arecibo telescope across hundreds of thousands of personal desktop computers. “Actually Berkeley and the SETI Institute have a long history together,” Diamond said. “Berkeley was involved with us in the very early days of developing the Allen Telescope Array, so we go back a long time. “

The program currently only has around 150,000 volunteers (down from a peak of 1.5 million users) and “we’re getting back into our problem again in that the telescope can generate far more data than we can analyze with the best sensitivity,” said Dr. Eric Korpela, head of the SETI@Home project.

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative has a “pipeline” that divides 1 GHz of spectrum into 3hz channels (330 million in total) that are scanned for potential signals. You want the channels to be as narrow as possible in order to maximize the sensitivity, however, as both the Earth and whatever exoplanet the telescope is looking at move through their respective solar systems, signals tend to “drift” in frequency. “You want to use computer power to correct for that motion,” Korpela explained, although the process is incredibly CPU-intensive. But that’s exactly what SETI@Home is trying to do.

However, even with the million-odd CPU cores at SETI@Home’s disposal, analyzing all that data is still slow going. Its volunteers only account for around 2 percent of the Breakthrough Listen Initiative’s analytical power. The program simply doesn’t have enough volunteers to keep up with the demand. And the fact that many people have ditched their desktops for mobile devices is not helping either.

“It is an issue that we worry about,” Korpela admitted. “We do have an app for Android. The processors that are in a typical phone right now are not comparable with what are in most desktops, but they’re certainly better than a processor from 1999.” The app is currently running on 22,000 volunteer mobile devices, or around 15 percent of the total base. However, these devices are only contributing 2.3 TFLOP/s of processing, 0.5 percent of the program’s total computational power. As such, SETI@Home doesn’t face a technological hurdle in accelerating its search for intelligent extraterrestrial life so much as a societal one.

“But given that there are a couple billion Android devices out there,” Korpela mused, “there are another 200 petaFLOP/s out there that we haven’t tapped yet.” The SETI@Home team hopes to garner new interest in their efforts when they release their report from the Breakthrough Listen Initiative this fall.

As for the SETI Institute, its technological roadblocks are being resolved with upgrades — and lots of them. The research group is looking to expand the number of dishes in the Allen Array from 42 to at least 128 in the near term before eventually growing it to more than 300 dishes. The Institute is also improving the sensitivity of its feeds — the antennas that take the collected radio signals from the dishes and convert them into digital signals — as well as their frequency response and converting the whole feed system to run cryogenically. “That improves the signal-to-noise ratio,” Diamond explained “since heat generates radio noise.” Finally, the Institute is looking to upgrade the antennas’ backend to enable them to sample more parts of the night sky — expanding from current 3-beam system up to 12.

“But even those enhancements probably don’t get us to the point of being able to detect Earth-like leakage,” Diamond lamented.

That’s why the SETI Institute is teaming with IBM to apply the company’s advanced machine learning algorithms to the Institute’s massive data archive. The Institute is already the only SETI group that performs real-time analysis of its collected signals, using fast Fourier transform to look for narrow-band carrier signals that would indicate a non-natural source. The Apache Spark cluster computing tools, however, “have the ability to extract, if it exists, from patterns that, to us, would otherwise look like radio noise,” Diamond said. “It’s given us the ability to actually do experiments that we’ve never been able to do before, including possibly detecting an Earth-like planet that’s just emitting leakage.”

Essentially, the Institute can point the ATA at a known exoplanet (or system like TRAPPIST-1), measure the star system’s radio signature, then wait for the planet to transit behind the sun and measure the system’s radio signature again. If there’s a significant difference in the readings, that could mean there’s something afoot on that exoplanet. The Institute wouldn’t necessarily be able to understand what’s encoded in the transmission but it would provide strong impetus for other astronomical research groups to follow up with their own observations. This is actually very close to what the Breakthrough Listen Initiative team is doing, albeit with a less sensitive piece of equipment.

And while the SETI Institute (as well as the Breakthrough Listen Initiative and SETI@Home, for that matter) can’t say for sure when humanity will find life outside of our own, the group is already cultivating interest in the subject with the next generation. The SETI Institute is sponsoring an IBM hackathon this June — they’re giving teams from around the world access to ATA data as well as to IBM’s machine learning tools. The competition will finish up with a live event in San Francisco come August. For now, though, we’re still alone (as far as science knows).

Welcome to Tomorrow, Engadget’s new home for stuff that hasn’t happened yet. You can read more about the future of, well, everything, at Tomorrow’s permanent home and check out all of our launch week stories here.

Rocket Lab nails first orbital rocket launch from a private pad

Rocket Lab has successfully launched its 56-foot-tall Electron rocket for the first time. The relatively tiny vehicle designed to ferry small payloads to orbit reached outer space around 20 minutes past midnight (Eastern time) on May 25th. Rocket Lab opened its 10-day launch window on May 21st and had to scrub three times due to poor weather conditions. Now that Electron was finally able to head outside our planet’s atmosphere, the company also became the first to launch an orbital-class rocket from a private facility.

Rocket Lab chief Peter Beck said in a statement:

“It has been an incredible day and I’m immensely proud of our talented team. We’re one of a few companies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and we did it in under four years. We’ve worked tirelessly to get to this point. We’ve developed everything in house, built the world’s first private orbital launch range [in New Zealand], and we’ve done it with a small team.”

The Electron has a carbon-composite shell and uses the company’s proprietary Rutherford engines, which has 3D-printed primary components. It can carry up to 330 pounds worth of cargo to orbit, so its main payloads will mostly be small satellites like CubeSats. The company expects to stage a lift off 50 times a year, though it’s legally allowed to launch up to 120 times. That’s probably more than what it can realistically book at this point in time — as Wired points out, there were only 85 overall launches in 2016.

Rocket Lab believes it can eventually do more launches than other aerospace companies, though, since it will offer cheaper services to customers who typically have to pay big money to hitch a ride on larger rockets. It already has clients lined up, including NASA, but before it can officially fulfill their order, it still has to successfully complete its next two test flights. The Rocket Lab team plans to use what it learns from this round to plan for its second flight, which will send an Electron to orbit.

Source: Rocket Lab

Imzy, the nice Reddit, is shutting down

Imzy, an online community that billed itself as Reddit, but for nice people, has announced that it will be closing down. In a statement, CEO Dan McComas admitted that after two years, the site was unable to find its “place in the market.” Imzy’s last day of operations is June 23rd, giving folks around a month to move their communities to other places online. McComas also noted that the site’s users don’t need to worry about their personal data being sold on later, saying that “nothing” will happen to it from now.

McComas joined Reddit after his project, RedditGifts, was acquired by the site, and rose to the role of SVP of Product in the company. He subsequently left to found Imzy, which operated on a similar model to Reddit, albeit with a mission to foster a much nicer community. McComas intended to do so by designing out toxicity by ensuring users only had one log-in per board and enabling moderators to set their own standards. Unfortunately, history is replete with “alternatives” to popular web communities falling by the wayside, just ask App.net, Orkut, Secret (for now), and So.cl, amongst others.

Source: Imzy

Alto uses your emails to clean up your calendar

Smartphones are an absolute godsend for organizing… well, pretty much everything. Yet despite all they do for us, it can still be hugely frustrating when your various calendar apps don’t play nicely with each other. AOL (Engadget’s parent company, for full disclosure) is trying to solve this headache with the latest update for its Mail tool, Alto.

For the uninitiated, Alto is an iOS and Android app that combines all your calendar appointments and email accounts into one tap-able hub. While it’s it looks like AOL is addressing a few of them in its latest update. Although it has always combined your various email inboxes, annoyingly, Alto would only previously track your appointments if they were made via Google Calendar.

Now, the app will link together all of your different email calendars whether they’re from Exchange email accounts, Yahoo, iCloud or most other providers. This will allow users to schedule, track and edit all their appointments in one easy to manage place. In another nice touch, this update makes Calendar events appear as actionable cards in the app’s dashboard, helping appointments to stay just as visible as important emails.

For those who prefer talking to their phone rather than swiping at it, the update also looks to make its existing Alexa support more useful. Previously, Amazon’s personal assistant only really integrated with Google Calendar, merely allowing users to ask about events that you’d penciled in already. Now, she will have access to all of your email accounts too, meaning that by asking her a simple question she can dig through your inbox for you, finding the date of that meeting that you’ve been dreading.

If like me, you sorely need a bit of organization in your life you can download the Alto update now from both the App Store and the Google Play Store.

IFTTT’s free ‘maker’ tier lets anyone create and share recipes

We thought the combined might of Domino’s Pizza and IFTTT shortcuts was as good as it might get, but that may just be the start. IFTTT is opening up its recipe/ applet creating platform to everyone, with a free ‘maker’ tier that offers deeper (read: harder) programming options beyond the simple “if this then that” UI most IFTTT aficionados use. You could already do this, making private applets for your own use, but this announcement means part-time developers can share any awesome applets with the greater IFTTT community, including lazy ingrates like myself.

Its means that any developer with a smart idea (even if they’re not directly involved with a company or online service), can bring their own internet shortcuts to the masses. Better still, because of how these applets work, they’ll do the job on any connected device, even if the developer doesn’t own the device themselves. There are already 440 services to tap into on IFTTT, and you’ll be able to apply your own Javascript code to recipes.

“Over 200,000 makers already use IFTTT to play, iterate, and test,” said IFTTT cofounder and CEO Linden Tibbets. “Giving them access to the tools our partners have is a no-brainer — it’s a win for both users and partners. We’re excited to see what they create and in the future, we expect to see new services originating from makers as well.”

More fast-food applets, then, if you could.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: IFTTT (1), (2)

New York Mag’s Lauren Kern Named First Editor-in-Chief of Apple News

Lauren Kern, Executive Editor at New York Magazine, has been named as the first editor-in-chief of Apple News, according to Politico.

It’s unclear what exactly the role will entail, but it suggests Apple has bigger ambitions of some kind for its News app on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Kern declined to comment for the story, and Apple has yet to confirm the hiring.

Apple News is not a firsthand source of news, so Kern’s role could be at least partially related to curation of other news sources. In February, Apple executive Eddy Cue said the company wants to “vet and make sure that the news providers” in Apple News are “legitimate,” in an effort to cut down on “clickbait.”

Apple News gathers stories from several leading news sources and displays them all in one place. The app launched on iOS 9 in the United States, and it has since expanded to Australia and the United Kingdom. The app was redesigned for iOS 10 with a bolder, simpler interface that puts content front and center.

Tag: Apple News
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